Patcheye, the Pirate!
This article is about the comic story. For the character, see Patcheye. This is a story from ''Popeye'', the original series published by Dell in 1948. The series was later renamed to Popeye the Sailor as it continued with other publishers. This comic book is the continuation of the series from Western Publishing. __TOC__ 'Synopsis' Swee'Pea finds a treasure map belonging to Patcheye, Pappy's grandfather, when the old sailor cleans his room. After they dig it up and open the chest, the ghost of Patcheye appears. 'Plot' Popeye finally convinces Pappy to clean his room. In the chaos of his efforts, a stray boot flies out the door and hits Swee'Pea on the head as he is passing by. Pappy says the boot belonged to his grandfather Patcheye, the greatest member of the family. He boasts about how mean, bloodthirsty and nasty he was. Pappy continues to say he disappeared a hundred years ago and nobody knows what happened to him. However, Swee'Pea tells Pappy he knows what happened to the treasure because a map falls out of the boot. They both head out to find the million-dollar treasure, which is buried somewhere on their own beach. The map leads them to an "X" marking the spot, so Swee'Pea starts to dig. He finds the treasure chest and lifts it out of the hole. When he opens it, the ghost of Patcheye appears. Pappy and Swee'Pea are almost run-through by the old ghost, but Pappy explains they are family. The old pirate explains that his crew ran him through, took his treasure and locked him in the chest. At the end of his story, a voice comes from the chest and Patcheye opens the lid to release the ghost of his parrot Matey. All four head for home, but Popeye and Patcheye instantly dislike each other. Popeye cannot stand pirates or ghosts and Patcheye cannot stand having a clean-shaven sissy sailor as a great-grandson. Popeye throws him out of the house, but Pappy invites him to stay in the garage. As the ghostly pirate is hiding out, he looks through his spyglass and sees all the 'dry land ships' passing by on the road. The pirate asks his great-great grandson if the passengers have any valuables, and comes up with a plan to start pirating the highways. Pappy loves the idea, so he loads the old truck with a cannon and flies the Jolly Roger. They weigh anchor and head for the bus route to start plundering the high roads. Patcheye spots their first bus and orders Pappy to throw a blow across her bow. When the bus stops, he orders him to pull alongside and board her to make the crew walk the plank. The youngest pirate points out that water is needed to walk the plank so his Pappy informs the ghost there is a river close by. Patcheye orders him to sail the bus into the river and he forces all the passengers to walk the plank by the tip of his blade. Together, the team of pirates on the open roads continue to plague the highways until late into the evening hours with their nasty plans. Later that night, Popeye has a visit from the owner of the bus line to tell him what the land pirates are up to. The businessman leads him to the scene of the assaults and they can see the river is filled with buses, stretching out for as far as the eye can see. Popeye rushes to confront Patcheye and force him back into his chest. The old ghost draws his sword and breaks the blade against the sailor's neck. Popeye pulls out his spinach, then the cowardly ghost screams in fear of the green weed and locks himself and Matey back in their sea chest. Last Updated: / / Category:Comics